Search This Blog

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Perspective


I took these pictures a few days ago while on my daily ski, and I can't decide which one I like best. It is the view northwest from the saddle of Pyramid Mountain towards Afognak Island.  I first took it as a wide angle panoramic and then zoomed in closer and closer for the subsequent pictures.

On the one hand, I like sweeping grand view of the wide angle panoramic, but on the other hand, you can't see the details of the landscape like you can in the closer views.  On the computer screen it's possible to zoom into the wide angle panoramic and see the individual trees and small islands shrouded in fog, but when looking at the picture as a whole on the computer screen you can not.  However, you can see the details in the zoomed in pictures.

Thinking about it I realized that panoramics lose their impact unless they are blown up huge.  They need to be on big canvases set on a wall where you can see them as a whole and then walk up close to see the details.  They are not good to look at on computer screens where their canvas size is limited.  In order to see detail on a computer screen you have to zoom in, and then it might as well have been a smaller canvas picture to begin with.

Anyway, just some food for thought the next time I am taking landscape pictures.  Patrick



2 comments:

Molly said...

It is very tempting to make panoramas really wide. I used to do that when my iPhone first got the panorama feature and I was super excited about it. Now I keep them a little more under control. I did print a very long stitched one though of the Alaska Range from Talkeetna. I need to get it matted and then I'd like to hang it in Ryan's family's cabin north of Talkeetna.

Zoya, Patrick, Nora and Stuart said...

After this post i went looking for some panoramics of my own to print! So much better to look at printed rather than on a small screen. I might even do another post with the ones I chose. I am amazed at how cheap it is to print 'em big on canvas with frame. Patrick